I Won't Quit You
by Lailuh
Summary: Peter finally realizes how much he means to Ned and how far he will go to keep his friend alive and breathing.


Peter was lying on the ground amongst rubble. He didn't have any idea what was going on; one moment he was with Ned at the movies and the next, alien invasion happened. When the two boys exited the theater their ears were greeted by screaming. People were running down the street while explosions were heard in the distance.

"This is _not_ how I expected the day to pan out." Ned said, not bothering to hide how freaked out he was. "What do you think they're doing?"

"I dunno but I don't want to stick around to find out." Peter answered. "Come on. Let's go."

He and Ned had been running with a group of people to try to get to a safe place. He could see Tony zooming through the skies around them, trying to keep it clear while getting everyone out of harms way and knew that everyone else wasn't too far away. The only problem was, it was a big group of people and it attracted a _lot_ of unwanted attention.

"Peter _don't_." Ned begged. "You don't even have your suit and I _really_ don't think they're the negotiating type."

"I have to do _something."_ Peter said. "I can't just keep running while others are in trouble." He broke away from the group.

"Peter!" Ned tried but was trapped in the herd. " _Peter_!"

Peter ignored Ned's calls. If he could delay the aliens for a few minutes then it would give the others a better chance of getting somewhere safe. He picked up a piece of rubble and threw it, hard, at an alien.

"Hey!"

It had worked in getting the thing's attention; he succeeded in getting not one but four aliens to stop their pursuit of the civilians and focus on him. The only problem was he didn't think farther than that and now had to somehow deal with them without accidentally exposing himself as Spider-Man.

He jumped out of the way as one lunged for him and began running in the opposite direction. He has his web shooters which would prove handy but didn't have much of an idea of how to deal with the four current problems running behind him. He ran down the destroyed street, leaping over flaming cars and chunks of building alike, wracking his brain on how to take them out.

A thought popped into his head and seemed like the obvious the more he thought about it. He picked up another chunk of rubble and hurtled it at an alien, hitting it square in the face before taking out his phone and calling Tony.

" _Kid I don't know if you've been outside today but I'm a little bit- busy at the moment_." Tony's strained voice came through the phone. " _Let's try to keep the jabber to a minimum today huh?"_

"We both know I've been outside way longer than you have." Peter huffed as he ran. "Is there an easy way to take these things out?"

" _Brute strength seems to work just fine. I know you have plenty of that. Just try not to get any of their nasty alien blood on the suit huh? Probably gonna be a bitch and a half to try to get out."_

"Yeah- um, that's gonna be a slight problem."

" _Okay if it's that bad then just run it through the wash twice, at least to get the smell out."_ Tony went silent on the line, waiting for Peter to give a witty remark and huffed when he received none. _"You're not Spider-man right now are you?"_

"I mean I'm technically _always_ Spider-man but uh, no… I was hanging out with Ned when everything went down and had to lead away the one that was chasing the group of civilians but now I'm running down the street with four on my tail."

Peter could practically see Tony shaking his head as he sighed. _"I'll try to get round and make it back to you. Just- try not to let any people see your face if you can help it."_

"There's not really anyone else around. I think the group I was with was-" His sentence was cut short as something barreled into his side. His phone went flying from his hand and clattered to the ground while he himself slid across the pavement with an alien on top of him.

The air was knocked from Peter's lungs as he slid and tumbled on the ground. He coughed as he came to a stop, the alien that tackled him mere feet away and already getting back up. His head hurt and his eyes saw slight blurs before his senses told him he needed to move. He rolled to the side and pushed himself up just in time to be out of the alien's pathway. He quickly sought his phone, only to see it shattered on the ground. Hopefully Tony would have already had his location.

"Okay… okay, time for plan b then."

Peter pulled up his hoodie and ties the front cording so it would fall from his head. It's wasn't perfect but it was better than nothing. Tony said brute strength worked to stop them, so he just had to think of a way to do that without the help of his suit or webs.

It had been times like those that he valued all the training and sparring sessions he did with Steve and Natasha. They taught him how to fight up close and unarmed if ever such a situation arose. It had been time to put his training into use. While the tactics he was taught were normally for other humans or enhanced individuals, they should work on aliens too.

They weren't all that difficult for Peter to get a feel for in all honesty, just decently fast, not to mention they outnumbered him. The first two were easy to take out of commission; a quick kick and punch to disorient them before flinging one into a building and the other into a car. The next two were a bit more difficult; bulkier, faster, intent to kill even greater than the first two but he managed to get them down, not before they were able to land a few good hits on him though. There was definitely _something_ broken and or bleeding internally.

The last alien to go at him was different. It didn't immediately attack him. It was almost like it was studying him, trying to figure out what exactly he was because he was different. What stunned Peter the most was when it actually took up a fighting stance and was waiting for him to begin the fight.

Peter didn't register the next few minutes. His brain had open on autopilot. He was doing his fair share of punching and kicking, as well as receiving a lot. When he thought he finally got the thing down it stood right back up and lunged for him, sending them both clean through a building to another street. It shouldn't have been that bad; he's definitely had worse and Tony would most likely been therein a minute or two to help out then yell at him for how beat up he got because of his stupid self-sacrificing nature. But the second a voice was heard on his ears, everything went blank.

"Peter!"

Ned was there, looking at the fight from an alleyway. Why he wasn't in a safe place was a mystery.

Peter tearing his eyes away from the alien to look at Ned for those few seconds was all it took for the creature to gain the upper hand. It punched Peter in the gut and kneed him in the face before kicking him so hard that he went flying back through the street and into an overturned car, making it shift slightly. If something wasn't broken earlier then multiple things certainly were now.

That was how Peter came to laying on the ground in the street, surrounded by rubble and basically on the brink of death. The alien had watched him for a second before slowly starting to walk towards him. He tried to stand but putting pressure on his ankle immediately sent a wave of pain of his leg; fractured or broken he didn't know, just another thing to add to the list.

"Peter!" Ned was kneeling in front of him. He didn't even realize he moved from the alley. "Shit dude-!"

"What are you doing here!?" Fear laced Peter's tone.

"I couldn't just _leave_ you!"

"I have powers Ned! I'm Spider-man! I can handle this!"

"I don't care about that! I don't care that you have super strength or that you're Spider-man. _You're my friend_ and you need help-!" Ned knelt down to assess how badly Peter was injured. "Don't you think I'm scared for you just as much as you're scared for me? You're not invincible, no matter how much you think you are…"

Peter stared blankly at his friend. In truth no, he never really thought that someone would be scared for him. His mind always went straight to the horrors of everything around him whenever a large scale attack happened. People were always scared about the things happening around them and about getting to a safe place. Even in robberies that he took care of, scared of the robbers and maybe even of he himself. It never really crossed his mind that people would be scared _for_ him and not _of_ him.

"Ned please- get out of here." Peter grunted as he tried again to stand but failed. "I can hold them off."

"You can't even stand. I'm not going to leave you like a lamb to the slaughter. The Guy in the Chair would never abandon Spider-man."

Peter's heart rate started to speed up as his sense told him he needed to do something. The alien from earlier was nearly on them and he had a feeling it wasn't finished with their fight.

"Ned, _please-"_

Ned stood up, Peter thinking, _hoping,_ he would listen to him and at least go hide in a building until the others came but he just turned his back to him and held his arms out at his sides.

"Pete I'm not leaving you here. So if that thing wants to get to you it has to go through me."

Peter wanted to throw up. He watched as Ned stood in front of him and acted as a shield to the alien that was now right in front of him. His heart felt like it would beat out of his chest and he was certain he could hear Ned's heartbeat. He could see him shaking and hear the slight quiver in his tone as he spoke but he stood his ground as the alien stared him down. To think Ned was really ready to _die_ for him was terrifying.

It felt like it lasted an eternity. Peter couldn't get to his feet no matter how hard he tried. His entire midsection felt like it was on fire. The rush had finally stopped and he was starting to feel the full force from the fighting he did.

"Ned…"

"Shut up."

He was shielding his best friend from an alien that could very well kill both of them, and he was crying.

Ned was crying. Peter could hear it in his tone.

Something happened that neither of them expected. The alien's eyes we're moving back and forth between them, almost as if it was studying them. It pulled out what Peter could only guess what some sort of communication device, made a call or something and turned from them, walking back down the street it had first come down. They waited for something to happen, its comrades to come to its call but it disappeared, like it had gone through a wormhole or been beamed back to wherever it had come from. Either way it was gone and left the two boys alone on the street.

Ned didn't move from his spot, not before someone caught his attention.

"Peter!"

Ned only put his arms down after he noted Ironman touching down in front of them and spotted Captain America running up the street behind them.

"Ned-?" The mask disappeared from the suit and Tony's eyes went back and forth between the boys. "What happened? Are you okay?"

Ned wiped his face. "Hey Mr. Stark. Crazy day we're having huh? I think, Pete seems like he's hurt real bad."

Tony's eyes found Peter's. He wasn't lying. Peter looked bad; numerous scrapes and bruises, bleeding from the head, his eyes looked unfocused, and he was breathing heavily.

"FRIDAY scan him for internal injuries." Tony placed a hand on Ned's shoulder. "Ned, are you hurt?"

"No, no I'm okay Mr. Stark." Ned answered as Steve joined them.

"Why don't you sit down? You look like you're gonna fall over."

"How you doing Pete?" Steve asked as he knelt by the boy.

"I've seen better days Cap. Is Ned okay?" Peter once again tried to stand, only to have Steve keep him from moving.

"He's fine Pete. Looks like you did a fair share of fighting."

"I feel like I coulda done more… what happened? They just- left?"

"We don't know but that's what it looks like, even the dead ones are gone. And it's not like the healthy took their wounded. They all just vanished."

Peter took a look around; indeed the alien's that had littered the streets were gone. "How is everyone else?"

"Let's just say you probably look the worst out of everyone. Think you can stand?"

"Yeah- yeah I think I'm okay." Though the grunting and hissing that came from his mouth as Steve helped him up betrayed the words that were just said.

Peter watched as Tony gave Ned a hand up, gripping his shoulder in a reassuring way before hobbling up to him and encasing him in a hug. He could feel the slight hitch in his breathing and the shake in his person, but most of all he could hear and feel his heartbeat. He didn't know why but that simple thing is what seemed to cause the immense panic that had formed in his chest. "You're okay?"

"Are you kidding? I get to hang out with Captain America, Ironman, and Spider-man. I'm great." Ned joke, but Peter noted the small shake in his voice and tightened his grip.

"Come on you two." Steve said gently after a moment. "We need to get you looked at just to make sure."

"You especially kid." Tony said with a gesture to Peter. "FRIDAY told me you got some internal bleeding that needs to be dealt with."

Peter and Ned finally separated from the hug. "It's not all that bad Mr. Stark."

"Let me say it again; internal bleeding."

"Yeah, the blood is all still in me so it's not that bad." Ned snickered at the remark.

Tony let out a defeated sigh and Steve shook his head. "I'll never understand you two's sense of humor."

 **Huuuuuuuuuurg**

 **Have I told you guys how much I love and value Peter and Ned's friendship? Because it is very very much and if you don't think they'd be ready to die for each other then fight me in the Denny's parking lot downtown. I dunno I was in need of some stupidly heroic Ned and this popped into my head like a week ago so hopefully you guys like it as much as I do.**

 **As for the who alien disappearing thing, I don't really have an explanation except for it seeing Ned willing to die for Peter and was like _eh they can live_ or something like that. Use you for a legit reason I suppose.**

 **I had another story like this but I don't think it's ever gonna get done because I did this one instead but who knows.**

 **Please point out any spelling or grammatical error I might have missed so I can fix it in the future! Leave a review! Tis the season of giving and I've been a good girl.**

 **ALSO I realized I'm an idiot because in the notes of my last story I said I made a blog for this account but didn't include a link. Duuuur. So if you're interested, it's Lailuhhh on tumblr and I'll provide a link in my bio.**

 **Hope ya liked it. See ya next time!**


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